Training Intro (Part 2.2): Foundational Health Requirements for High Intensity Training (Continued.)
Second Half of Foundational Health Section: Joint Health, Resistance Training to Reduce Injury, Blood work and Supplementation
Foundational Health Essentials (Part 2)
Table of Contents (For this piece only - Previous Elements are on Monday’s post. *READ MONDAY POST FIRST*)
Joint Health
Resistance Training to Reduce/Heal Pain & Injury
Blood Work + Supplementation
Closing Thoughts
Joint Health
What kills people as they age? What stops you from being young? What separates you from your “prime” and becoming “old”?
It is not your heart, bodyfat, or wrinkles. (Though we covered their importance) It is almost always loss of range of motion, strength, and daily pain/unsteadiness/lack of force resiliency. The day you start waking up “in pain” regularly, when you “can’t” do the things you used to, that is when your inside voice mutters “I’m getting old”. When you are “old”, most people will end up eventually decaying to the point where they lose the strength and capacity to prevent themselves from falling. Either in the shower, out of bed, down the stairs, on ice, or trying to get unstuck from the toilet. After the fall, many people who are now so fragile get hurt extremely badly. They need surgery or live with complications that afflict them for their remaining years. This is the moment they began their acceleration towards death. They can no longer walk, or stay active in any way, or at least the way they might have before. Whatever positive effects they were upholding prior are not completely muted and their decline will come many years sooner than it would have prior. Ugly and tragic situations like this happen all the time. This is the risk of losing strength and developing bad joints (especially in the knees and back)
The moment your joint health begins to fail, your ability to uphold many of your other health factors begin to degrade as well. Not to mention the effect all of this begins to have on your psyche and mental state. (Important for health as well) The road to the above scenario didn’t start with the fall, but began with back, shoulder, or knee pain, etc. years earlier. This took you out of the gym at first. Then it put you on the couch because walking/running hurt. Decades later you’re bedridden. The bed/chair you confined yourself to for so many years instead of moving and training is now your prison.
So, I am sure I don’t need to clarify any further after Monday’s post and the previous lecture that your joints are the essence of your ability to move, and thus integral to your “foundational health” (are you tired of hearing that word yet?).